Site-specific artwork
H25, Hudiksvall Hospital, Sweden
Commissioned by Region Gävleborg
Completed 2026

GEMSTONES is a site-specific, permanent art installation for Hudiksvall Hospital’s H25.
During the research phase, I visited the site at a time when large volumes of bedrock were being crushed to make way for the new hospital facility. It was powerful process to witness. It exposed a material condition in which geological time became physically tangible. Every piece of rock appeared as a fragment of time, like condensed trace of the Earth’s long history.

GEMSTONES is a permanent installation that brings this experience into focus. The work is presented both on the façade above the entrance and within the interior space. Inside, the rocks are displayed like museum objects on pedestal-like, blued steel, shelves. Selected stones are partially gilded with 23.7-carat gold leaf.
Gold, historically associated with permanence and eternity, functions here as a marker of attention. Warm spot lighting further emphasizes the objects. These rock fragments, by-products of the construction process, are transformed into objects of observation and reflection.

GEMSTONES embodies the site’s layered history, implying that what is removed is not erased, but continues to exist as part of an ongoing narrative. Just as the future will continue to unfold into a new story.

Photographer: Robin Hayes